While Prime Minister Stephen Harper undoubtedly wishes this issue would disappear, Canadians marched in more than two dozen cities today, demanding a full inquiry into the federal election robocall scandal. In Winnipeg, over 100 rallied at the corner of Osborne Street and River Avenue where organizer Josh Brandon expressed the sense of outrage that many Canadians feel about the undermining of Canada’s electoral system. Speakers Kevin Lamoureux (Liberal MP for Winnipeg North) and Judy Wasylycia-Leis (former NDP MP for the same riding) urged them to support an NDP-sponsored bill that would grant Elections Canada greater powers to investigate electoral fraud, including the more than 30,000 complaints filed by Canadians about the last federal election.

At the conclusion of the speeches, the demonstrators marched to the Winnipeg South Centre office of Tory MP Joyce Bateman, to present her with a petition regarding concerns about robocalls that were made to voters in that riding. In the previous election Bateman narrowly defeated the Liberal incumbent, Anita Neville.